Inspector Gregory: "Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?"Sherlock Holmes: "To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time."
Gregory: "The dog did nothing in the night-time."
Holmes: "That was the curious incident!"
From "The Adventure of Silver Blaze" by Arthur Conan Doyle
-----------------------In 1994 Jessie Ventura convinced Federal authorities not to subpoena him as a witness against Vince McMahon in the steroid trial case - United States vs Vince McMahon and Titan Sports.
Ventura had successfully sued Titan in April 1994 for almost $1 million in back royalties. In avoiding testifying, Ventura not only avoided further alienating McMahon but also escaped public dissection of his career and reputation, under hotile cross examination from McMahon's lawyers.
Instead Ventura suggested the Feds subpoena Tom Zenk who was then working in Japan. Zenk was subpoened to give evidence for the prosecution, further alienating him from the McMahons - while his forced absence, half way through a tour, jeopardized future work for All Japan.
Ventura had worked closely with McMahon for over 10 years while Zenk had worked for WWF for only 6 months. If either of the men were positioned to know what was going on in the WWF it was surely Ventura.
What, if anything, did Ventura and other longstanding WWF stars know of the inner workings of the WWF? Tom Cole - a WWF ring boy involved in a major 1992 wrestling sex scandal - appeared recently on Dave Meltzer's Wrestling Observer Live radio show and shed a little light on this and other issues ......
Interview headlights
Dave Meltzer Wrestling Observer Live 2/2/2001
- "Jesse Ventura approached him (Cole) 1985 and asked him what he was doing around Mel Phillips since "he's a strange guy around kids." Its very disturbing ...that Jesse would go back to work for McMahon knowing what happened when he was there."
- "Tom (Cole) thinks Vince has stuff to hide. He says Bret Hart was on Howard Stern and said something about Vince and another wrestler (Shawn Michaels)."
- "Vince and Linda destroyed so many people who came out against them...Linda McMahon is as good an actress as Vince is an actor .....she is a very shrewd woman. "
- "..Vince knew and .. sexual harassment was joked about frequently. And Vince knows everything everyone in his company is saying. .... Vince knew enough to tell (Mel) Phillips not to have young kids around and threw his lunch in his face, but didn't fire him"
- "Tom says Jerry McDevitt (McMahon's attorney) once told him that he has children, and if he ever suspected Vince knew anything, he would drop him as a client."
Full textTom Cole joins the show. Tom is a former ring boy in the WWF who was involved in a major sex scandal in 1992 involving Terry Garvin, Pat Patterson and Mel Phillips. Tom says he has moved on since then, and he and his wife are expecting their first child. But, the Vince McMahon interview in Playboy brought up some things. Vince tried to get
sympathy for being molested as a child, when Vince McMahon knew some of the things that were going in the WWF, including things that happened to Tom from the time he was 12-14-years old. Things that also happened to many other people.Dave asks if Tom had any contact with Jesse Ventura. Tom says he sure did, and nearly had a heart attack when he found out that he was going to be governor. Tom says Jesse Ventura approached him 1985 and asked him what he was doing around Mel Phillips since "he's a strange guy around kids." It's very disturbing to him that Jesse would go back to
work for McMahon knowing what happened when he was there. Jesse knows what Vince McMahon is, but he continues to work with him as governor. Tom also says it appears to be a conflict of interest that Jesse works for Vince, when Vince runs his shows in Minnesota.Dave talks about how while this controversy was going on, Tom had a secret settlement to go back to the WWF. This was when on Larry King's show Vince said he had no idea who Tom was, even though at the same time he was negotiating with him. Tom says everyone always says it was about money, and that he sued for sexual harassment because he was
looking to get paid. Tom says at the time he had many people, including his brother who he has since had a major falling out with, telling him that he should sue for millions and millions. Tom says he just wanted the right thing done. He ended up getting two years back pay, which is $75,000. And he was sexually harassed and Terry Garvin told
him that if he wasn't allowed to perform oral sex on him, he wouldn't have a job the next day. And that's what happened as Garvin sent someone to where Tom was working, sending out ring equipment, and told him they didn't want him any longer. He says he wanted to believe that Vince knew nothing about this and that's what they told him, but all they wanted to was shut him up. Vince and Linda destroyed so many people who came out against them, like Murray Hodgkins [ Sean Murray the announcer) and Rita Chatterton (the female referee). Tom and Dave say they thought that those two sort of bent the truth about what happened to them. Dave says WWF lawyer Jerry McDevitt destroyed Hodgkins in a deposition, and Dave had the opinion from talking to Hodgkins that he got fired, and then heard about these allegations and tried to say they happened to him. Tom says the WWF ended up suing the New York Post and Phil Mushnick for millions of dollars, but they didn't get a dime. Tom says Mushnick is like a hero to him because he is the only member of the mainstream media who speaks out against Vince McMahon.Tom says he did an interview with Geraldo Rivera and the show loved it and wanted to do it. But Vince had Tom's lawyer squashed the interview. Tom says they WWF wanted him to share everything with them and they followed him everywhere. Tom says Linda McMahon is as good an actress as Vince is an actor. She actually hugged him crying one time. He says people think Linda is a front, but she is a very shrewd woman.
Tom says they wanted to keep him for a year to get as much information out of him as possible and then they planned to get rid of him. Tom says Linda would go to his unemployment hearings and Tom asked the arbitrator if he thought it was strange the owner would be going to the hearings of a ring boy. So he eventually told the arbitrator why, and Linda backed off because she didn't want anything on record. Tom says they appealed the decision 11 times, but Tom eventually won his unemployment case.
Tom says he had a friend, Chris, who when they were 13-14 used to work with Mel Phillips. Tom says he called Chris when this was all going down and Chris was crying because he finally had somebody to talk to him about it and who understood what happened to him. Tom says they were close, but after he settled, Chris wouldn't talk to him. He
doesn't know what they did to him.Dave says Tom was really the only person that came forward and wonders what that means. Tom says it means that people who were supposed to come forward were gotten to. That's his opinion, but he challenges Vince or McDevitt to challenge him on anything, because all he has ever said is the truth.
Caller asks if Tom thinks Vince had prior knowledge of what was going on, or if Vince found out after and then tried to cover his butt. Tom says Vince knew and that sexual harassment was joked about frequently. And Vince knows everything everyone in his company is saying. Dave asks if he thinks Vince just heard rumors, or if knew enough to ask.
Tom says Vince knew enough to tell Phillips not to have young kids around and threw his lunch in his face, but didn't fire him.Caller asks if Tom ever pressed criminal charges against Mel Phillips. Tom says that unfortunately the statue of limitations was up on when this happened. Tom says the federal government wanted the big fish, so they went after McMahon. Tom thinks they certainly had enough to go against Phillips and Terry Garvin. Caller asks why Vince said Mel
Phillips was a day worker and not an employee of the WWF. Tom says that wrestlers are classed as 'independent contractors', and so was Mel Phillips. But he worked about 90 hours a week for 20 years for the WWF. Tom says that was a loop hole that Vince used. Tom says Mel was with the McMahon family for decades.Tom says the whole ordeal matured him and made him grow up very fast. He says everyone had their own agenda. Tom says his brother was in it for the money, the prosecutors were in it to get Vince, Vince and Linda were in it to save their company and the media was in it for the glamorous story. Tom says he doesn't consider himself a victim, and he has gone on with his life. Bryan asks if Tom thinks there is anyone who didn't have an agenda and actually wanted to help him. Tom says he truly believes Phil Mushnick was the only person who wanted to help him. Tom says NBC knows about Vince McMahon, but they care more about ratings and that's why they are now partners with him. Dave tells Tom what Dick Ebersol said, which is that if he was ever hit by a truck, he would want Vince to take care of his kids. Tom sounds like he is really sickened by that, and says he was glad he wasn't on a roof when he heard it.
Ben Miller (Wrestleline.com I think) calls in. He asks Tom what he thinks Vince's motivation is, money or something else? Tom thinks Vince has stuff to hide. He says Bret Hart was on Howard Stern and said something about Vince and another wrestler (Shawn Michaels). Dave says Vince's motivation initially was to save his company and now its to
get back at his detractors. Tom says Vince must be loving everything with his new football league coming out, which Tom gives about a 1-1/2 years.Tom says he can't tell you how many times a reporter has contacted him about getting his comments on Vince McMahon. But then the reporters go back to Vince and he kills the story. The reporters always say that won't happen, but it always does. Tom says Jerry McDevitt once told him that he has children, and if he ever suspected Vince knew
anything, he would drop him as a client. Tom confronted McDevitt about this one time and McDevitt told him that everyone is entitled to representation. Tom adds especially if they have money.Dave brings up the Phil Donahue show were Dave was sitting next to Vince and Tom was in the audience. Dave says before the show Barry Orton told him that he couldn't get a hold of Tom and told him not to talk about Tom. Tom's name never came up on the show. Vince McMahon actually brought Tom to the show after Linda had begged him to come. Tom
sat in the audience with Linda and Miss Elizabeth. He went to the dressing room after the show and the producer was saying it would have been great if Tom Cole could have done the show. Vince pointed and said there he is, so the producer was upset. Dave and Tom say the audience was laughing and didn't take anything seriously because it was
wrestling.Tom closes out the show saying he doesn't know where Mel Phillips is working now, but he hopes it isn't anywhere near a school.
